And no, I’m not basing that on some obscure metric—I’m literally talking about the difference between the market price of the assets the fund owns and the market price of the fund itself.

It works like this: a CEF can trade for, say, $9.90, even though all the assets the fund holds (known as the net asset value, or NAV) are worth $10. Believe it or not, this happens a lot—it’s exactly how billionaire investors make big money in CEFs.

The Dividend Aristocrats, as you may well know, are companies that have increased their annual dividends without interruption for at least 25 years. That speaks to a high level of dependability and stability that even many other blue chips can’t claim.

But boy, can they be stingy.

Aristocrats, Or American Debt? It’s Not Even Close

The ProShares S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats ETF (NOBL), which faithfully tracks those payout champions that call the S&P 500 index home, collectively yields 1.7% at the moment, which is an almost laughable amount of current yield. The 10-year Treasury isn’t just beating that – at a roughly 2.9% yield, it’s simply clobbering it.… Read more

“It’s impossible to call a top in yields (or bottom in munis) without the benefit of hindsight. But we contrarians make our money buying when nobody else wants to – and the last time munis were this hated, they returned 30-38% over the next 12 months.”

Ignore the pundits’ petrified bleating over rising interest rates. Sure, the yield on the 10-Year Treasury has spiked to 2.9%, but you’re still not retiring on it!

Look at it this way: if you dropped, say, $500,000 into Treasuries tomorrow, you’d still only get $14,500 in income. That’s just a hair over the poverty line of $14,342 for two people aged 65+ living under one roof.

That’s an insult after a lifetime of hard work!

And it’s exactly why I’m going to show you 3 simple steps you can take to rack up safe dividends that average 6.6% now (and some go well beyond 9.4%).… Read more

The market’s historic bull run just hit a brick wall … and I couldn’t be more excited.

I’ve had my eye on three robust dividend growers for months. And thanks to this pullback, they finally trade at attractive prices (and pay a blended 6.5% yield!)

February saw the S&P 500 decline for the first time since October 2016 – the month before Donald Trump was elected president. The index dipped 3.9% as every last sector dipped into the red. And with a little shove at the start of March, stocks have lost just about all their gains in 2018.

Stocks are Effectively Flat for 2018

Compared to the past year-plus, it feels like blood in the streets, sidewalks and gutters.… Read more

I’m getting plenty of worried emails from readers, asking me if the near-10-year bull market in stocks is over and if it’s time to get out.

I give them the same answer every time: no.

Today I’m going to show you why—and reveal 2 unheralded funds that hold shares of the household names you know and love, but with two added twists: they give you a predictable shot at big gains in the next 12 months. And they do it while handing you an outsized average dividend yield of 11.3%!

That’s enough to hand you $942 a month in income (or $11,300 a year) on just a $100,000 investment!… Read more